Monday 30 April 2012

Shrink plastic week: necklace

Hello, 
Hope you had a nice weekend. 
This week will be all about Shrink Plastic (SP for short) with all sorts of lovely samples for the team.

Before we start, a few tip on Shrink Plastic for those of  you who have never used it...
As the name suggests, it's a plastic that will shrink down to 40% (on average, depending on the brand) when heated. Most crafters use a heat tool but you can also shrink your plastic in the oven but always make sure to follow manufacturer's instructions.

The best thing to do to find out how smaller it will shrink is to make yourself a "ruler". Just cut a piece of Shrink Plastic (let's say 10cm), mark the cm on the shrink plastic with a permanent pen and heat it to shrink it. Keep it as a reference to know how much smaller your plastic will shrink.


We sell several types of Shrink Plastics HERE on our website: white, black, translucent and clear... You can buy packs of your favourite type or buy a sampler pack.




Shrink plastic can be stamped or coloured/inked before you heat it. Personally, I love using Brillance inks (especially the pearlescent ones) on SP. Although this is a pigment ink, it will fully dry once heated. But any type of permanent ink will work (StazOn, Archival...)

Occasionally the plastic may stick to itself during the shrinking process. If this happens it can be carefully pulled apart while it is still hot or you can "dust" it with your antistatic bag on both sides before (stamping and) heating it.

If you have any Shrink Plastic questions, please ask them in a comment below (don't forget to either leave your email or come back to check the answer).

We are offering 10% off all shrink plastic this week

just type
shrink
 in the offer code box as you go through checkout!

*****


We will start the week with Neil, who made a lovely pendant using PaperArtsy stamps
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I stamped the images onto a sheet of white shrink plastic in black stazon and then cut them out. Before shrinking I worked out the placement and punched holes for the jump rings.
Once shrunk I attached the pieces together with jump rings, added the chain and then to finish I adhered some flat back gems to the top.



Materials
Chain
Stamps - Paperartsy LPC002 

See you tomorrow




Saturday 28 April 2012

Simply Katzelkraft Saturday

Hi, 
Double treat today with Gay and her Clean and  Simple style offering us not one but two projects: a cute recycled little box and a masculine card.

This was a chocolate box that I saved from Christmas, loved the shape and painted it with gesso almost as soon as I emptied it !! The cat stamp is so bold an image I wanted to leave it in B/W and I love that combination with the guacamole Fresco paint, yum! Inside is painted with black Fresco. The cat I stamped out and cut panels to adhere to the four sides and now I've somewhere to store my glitter pens


For her box, Gay used
Fresco Finish paints: Guacamole and Little Black dress
The little toggle is white shrink plastic and the chain recycled from a clothing tag.

****


Using the Masculine stamp set KTZ 86, simply stamping and a little background colour.

For her card, Gay used:
Archival ink in coffee


See you next week ;)
have a great weekend



Friday 27 April 2012

Katzelkraft week: another beautiful tag

Hello, 
As promised yesterday, here's another tag made by Michelle this time.
Michelle used Ranger alcohol inks to make her beautiful background but remember that we also sell the Letraset alcohol inks which come in over 45 (!!) colours. Imagine all the possibilities with such a wide range of colours. 

The background for the tag was a choice of three alcohol inks spotted onto felt on a Ranger applicator. A spot of metalic gold alcohol ink was added and then applied to gloss paper. When the ink has covered the page just add a spot of mixative and apply again to the paper. 
Theres a great tutorial by Tim Holtz HERE 
Then its just a case of stamping your design onto the tag using Archival ink. I've stamped the lace pattern on the left and the dressmakers dummy on the right.
To make the embellishments, I cut the sewing room die out of the shrink plastic and using StazOn stamped the lace across the skirt part of the dummy positioning so the dip in the top of the lace was centered at the waist then stamped the ovalish motif so that it fitted into the dip from the neckline. After doing the same with the bobbin I shrank them with the heat gun after punching a hole with the Crop-a-Dile to hang them.


With a few bits and pieces to decorate from my stash it was ready to go in my cards etc to give with presents. Mmmmm must make a card to go with it so it's a matching gift set! 

I used
Katzelkraft unmounted rubber stamps - Lace
Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz: Haberdashery
Ranger Archival Ink pad: Jet Black
Polyshrink : translucent

See you tomorrow




Thursday 26 April 2012

Katzelkraft week: tag box

Hey bloggers, 
I told you we would have quite a few tags this week (one more coming tomorrow with Michelle), so it was perfect timing (and not planned!) that Neil altered this wooden basket to store his tags. I LOVE the idea and might do this myself very soon. Thanks Neil.

I use this wooden "basket" to keep tags that I've pre-cut so I have some ready when I want one. It's not been decorated until now though! I coloured it with Distress Stain as it covers wood items fabulously. I stamped some images around it in archival ink.
The main image was stamped onto card and torn around before being coloured with distress ink a


To finish I added a small tattered flower from the sizzix strip die and edged the container with Inka gold to add some sparkle.nd blending foam. I removed some of the colour by using a waterbrush and paper towel. This highlights areas nicely!
Materials list
Medium box from set of 3 wooden baskets
Sizzix tattered flower strip die
KTZ67 Circus stamp
Distress stains- Forest moss
Distress inks- Forest moss and Barn Door
Inka gold 912 lava green.



Wednesday 25 April 2012

Katzelkraft week: Tag #2 and clasp bag

Hi, 
Third day in our Katzelkraft week and first of all, I would like to share a beautiful sample made by one of our customer: Lucy Edmonton.
Isn't it lovely?
Thank you Lucy for sharing this with us :o)


Now for our DT sample. Linda has made an amazing background on her tag today using Distress stains and Perfect Pearls mist.


 I scribbled with Bundled Sage; Picket Fence; Broken China and Wild Honey Distress Stain onto my Craft Sheet ... spritzed my tag with water and then sloshed it and splashed it about ... drying the layers each time with my heat tool! I LOVE Picket Fence Distress Stain. Next I stamped the KatzelKraft cogs in Sepia ... added Tim Holtz text in Coffee Archival then stamped the KatzelKraft landmarks and car in Jet Black StazOn. I did a quick wash over the car and scenery with Derwent watercolour pencils and a water brush ... spritzed the whole tag with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls and then added a spot of Faux Stitching with a Black Pen and a Pokey Tool! Great Fun!



Linda used:
Distress Stains: Bundled Sage; Broken China; Wild Honey; Picket Fence
Archival inks: Sepia; Jet Black; Coffee
Katzelkraft Mini: 09; 13; 19
Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls mist
Tim Holtz: Just Thoughts

See you tomorrow


Tuesday 24 April 2012

Katzelkraft week on Art Journal

Ciao a tutti!
Today is Gio day and a new beautiful Art Journal page all about vintage fashion. 
Gio has incorporated a little booklet on her Art Journal page which I think is very effective. What do you think? 


Here are the details on how Gio made her pages:



For the background: I painted both pages using acrylic paint Americana Warm White. I spread some Dreamweaver Crackle paste with the help of a palette knife, along the borders and on some small areas. To give a distressed look and highlighted the crackelled parts with Distress Ink Pumice Stone, Spun Sugar and Antique Linen.

I stamped the chandelier and other details using Katzelkraft "Cage and Chandelier" with Archival ink Plum and Coffee. I added two pieces of ribbon to the pages with the help of a needle.
I cut out the text from a paper leftover and I glued down to the background.




For the leaflet: I protected  the main image of the leaflet from the paint with Artcoe blue masking fluid. I painted all around it using acrylic paint Americana Warm White. Once dried, I gently peeled off the masking fluid. I added some stamped details using the same plate from Katzelkraft and I wrote the journal all around the images using a brown pen.
I glued the leaflet to the page.




Materials
Katzelkraft "Cage and Chandelier"
Dreamweaver embossing paste: Crackle
Americana Warm White
Distress Inks Pumice Stone-Spun Sugar -Antique Linen
Archival inks Plum - Coffee
Artcoe blue masking fluid
Artcoe Blue bell spiral cartridge book: long edge A5

See you tomorrow



Monday 23 April 2012

Katzelkraft week starting with a tag

Hellooooo, 
Hope you had a great weekend. 
Another inspiration week, this time with KATZELKRAFT stamps. 
The Craft Barn is the sole UK retailer for the Katzelkraft stamps and you can find our large selection hereKatzelkraft stamps are now sold as 1/2 plates, 1/4 plates, 1/3 plates and minis on our website.






Our team has been busy preparing some wonderful samples for you and we hope you will let us know what you think..

We are going to start this week with Isa'sArt and a stunning tag. In fact, there will be quite a few tags this week and even an altered box to store those tags ;)

Isa used inches on her tag and here's how she made it.


She stamped her inchies (teeny 1" squares) using Distress inks and added a touch of colour with the Aquamarker

She then made a little pocket (using Spellbinder dies) at the back of the tag to add a message if she sends her tag.

She slipped a tag (Tim Holtz die) inside repeating the image she had chosen on the pocket




Materials Isa used:
Katzelkraft stamps KTZ70 KTZ71 KTZ72 KTZ78 KTZ87 KTZ93
 Tim Holtz Alterations die: Movers & Shapers large die Tag & book plates - Bigz Tiny tabs and tags / Spellbinders Curved rectangle
Distress inks:Vintage photo, Walnut, Brushed Corduroy, Linen
Aquamarker pens: Sangria, Sepia, Blender 
Copic E29 
Stickles: Fruit punch

See you tomorrow



Saturday 21 April 2012

Simply Saturdays and Crafty Individuals

Hi, 
Coloured or black and white? this is Gay's question today. She could not choose which version she prefers, so I post both and you let us know which you prefer.
To be honest, I would not be able to choose either, they are both lovely to me ;)


My card today is a one layer card and one of my favourite stamps from Crafty Individuals. At first it seemed a sad image but could just as easily be used for Christmas, missing you or write soon, I love her calm and innocent face. I inked the stamp carefully leaving the edge uninked and then I smudged the ink on the stamp with a baby wipe. I stamped her on my card and made a mask with a post it note.
I really couldn't decide whether to leave her black and white so continued to colour the background with the mask in place. I wonder which you prefer, I'd love to know!



Gay used:
Crafty Individuals stamps, CI 154, CI 214
Distress inks Pumice Stone and Wild Honey
See you next week :o)


Friday 20 April 2012

Crafty Individuals week: scrapbooking

Hello :o)


Crafty Individuals on a scrapbook page... sounds good doesn't it? 
Neil made this vintagy, lacey page to show that Crafty Individuals stamps are not only for cards, they work beautifully on scrapbook pages too.


I used the pre printed tags as the starting point for the page and built it up from there, there's just a bit of stamping to add highlights here and there. The photo of my eldest daughter and I was changed to pale sepia tones and printed on canvas. I used tissue tape to add detail and used more vintage tape measure to tie on the tags.
But my favourite part of this layout is that ....

the tags are hinged so there's plenty of space for writing! And if you run out of space....




this one opens too!
I used Tim's tissue tape to make the hinges and cut out the section of the photo that overlaps the tag and glued it onto the tag.
Some bits and bobs of idea-ology to accent and all done.


more details...



Materials list
CI-334 stamps
Angel image from Crafty Individuals book
Crafty Individuals pre printed portrait tags
Paper distresser and tiny attacher

See you tomorrow



Thursday 19 April 2012

Crafty Individuals week: jewellery

Hi, 
How about some gorgeous jewellery today, with Gio's gorgeous bracelet and pendant. She used an image transfer technique for the bracelet and clay for the pendant.
Here's how Gio made her beautiful pieces.


I cut out some images from Crafty Individuals images - Film Strip A4 sheet and Love letters A4 sheet. I attached a piece of clear tape over the image, I burnished very well on the front and on the back, then I sanded the back a little bit and I sprayed it with water. I peeled the back gently until the image was revelead. I cut them in circle shapes.
For the chain I used an old simple necklace, and I turned it out in a bracelet, cutting it in 3 pieces and linking again with a new jump ring.
I added the circles to the bracelet using some jump rings.


For the pendant: I covered the little chipboard frame with Viva Pardo clay Agate (no glue is needed), I stamped the clay using CI-293.I coloured the clay with Dreamweaver Metallic F/X mica powders using a little brush. 
I made two holes on the frame before drying the clay. I dried the clay with the heat tool (or you can use the oven). I highlighted the raised areas with black gesso ( you can use black acrylic paint as well), I added some beads and the chain. I glued to the back of the frame an image from Love letters A4 sheet transferred on clear tape. 







Materials
Crafty Individuals - A4 chipboard die-cut sheet (Mini frames & swirls)
Crafty Individuals images - Film Strip A4
Crafty Individuals images - Love letters
CI-293 - Flower medley 
Viva Pardo clay Agate
Claudine Hellmuth black gesso/black acrylic paint


See you tomorrow